Vettel fastest in new Silverstone in FP1

Sebastian Vettel was fastest in Friday Practice 1 at the revised Silverstone circuit. He finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica. This session also saw the appearances of test drivers for Lotus, HRT and Force India, as Fairuz Fauzy, Sakon Yamamoto and Paul di Resta took over from their team-mates.

There were many difficulties this session, most notably at the Abbey corner. The bumps there were causing many drivers, including Hamilton and Michael Schumacher, to run wide. The first lap of the new track was set by Jenson Button, a 1.37.994, but this time was cut by more than 5 seconds as the session concluded.

Mark Webber was 4th, followed by impressive finishes by Adrian Sutil and Nico Rosberg. Nico Hulkenberg was 7th, while Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello finished off the top 10.

As they seem to do in Friday Practice sessions, the Ferraris were very poor, with Fernando Alonso 13th and Felipe Massa 17th. Paul di Resta was 14th, but Fairuz Fauzy and Sakon Yamamoto were 23rd and 24th respectively.